6/19/2023 GULLAH GIRLS FINEST: Savannah Sauce Company launches new seasoning to celebrate JuneteenthRead NowJuneteenth, a federal holiday marking the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, will be observed on June 19, and the Savannah Sauce Company has been mixing up something new just in time for Juneteenth. Mike Roberson, president, and founder of Savannah Sauce Company, has a distinctive way of celebrating the occasion. He will be launching a new seasoning at a private event at the Beach Institute and on the menu is a Southern favorite fish and grits. Roberson’s path to this point started out differently. Inspiration for Savannah Sauce Company began many years ago in the Savannah kitchen of Roberson’s maternal grandmother, Henrietta Smith. "My grandmother was a survivor of the Great Depression, and they were very thrifty people. They would can and jar vegetables or whatever other fruits they grew in their backyards. "When I got into this space, I began selling someone else's sauces," said Roberson in a recent interview with WSAV's Kim Gusby. Through another misstep, as Roberson put it, he ended up selling his own signature brand of sauces. The sauce ended up on the shelves of Whole Foods and quickly gained traction not only in our area but across the country. Today, his company makes sauces, jams, and other products that generally reflect the flavors he enjoyed growing up in Savannah. Savannah Sauce Company’s products are all made in Georgia, all locally sourced, and all natural. "It was 5 years ago that I had this notion to start a line of seasonings because it's like a natural progression. Sauces and seasonings are all in the same family. We're in the low country, so I wanted to focus on seasonings that honored the people of the Gullah Geechee culture," said Roberson. Five years later, he named the company and the brand ‘Gullah Girls Finest,’ a name he came up with while driving from South Carolina. "I am very excited for people to try the new seasoning," said Roberson. "Juneteenth is a very special holiday that commemorates a lot, and on that day, we’re giving some folks a peek at what we're going to be doing." Gullah Girls Finest will also be a sponsor for actress, writer, and comedian Cocoa Brown's nonprofit charity called Wigs of Love Lupus Foundation. Brown, who is best known as Jennifer in Tyler Perry’s "For Better or Worse" and her role as Lytia in "The Single Moms Club," started the foundation to support women losing their hair to the autoimmune disease. Over the years, the Savannah Sauce Company has given back in many other ways as well, including by working to combat homeliness and working with budding entrepreneurs. "The number of homeless people in our area and across the country is astonishing. To me, it's a shame that someone who served the country does not have a place to call home. We wrote the first cookbook, "Tiny Homes for Big Heroes," said Roberson. Proceeds went to the Chatham Savannah Authority for the Homeless. They also raised money with one of their retail partners, Whole Foods. "During that time, they had something called 5% Tuesdays. Five percent of the sales of everything in the store would go to charity," said Roberson. Roberson also founded TigerCo Marketing, which was a student-run company that markets Tiger's Awesome Sauce, a sauce gifted to the students at the Savannah State University College of Business. "I started this company because I was downsized, and I started thinking, how can I help some younger folks who are just entering the work world and enhance them? That solution was to give them real-world experience, and TigerCo Marketing was born," said Roberson. The students initially ran the company; however, the TigerCo Program was inserted into the curriculum of one of the marketing classes. The revenues are donated to the College of Business to fund competitive micro loans for the students. You can find the Savannah Sauce Company product line, which includes hot sauces, ketchups, BBQ sauces, marinades, and other assorted sauces, at Whole Foods, Ace Hardware, and other local retailers and farmer’s markets and online at savannahsaucecompany.com
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